Thursday, 11 April 2013

DIY Weapons In Syria - The Mobile Mortar Battery

Along with DIY rockets and grenades, one of the most widely produced weapons in Syria are DIY mortars. At this stage in the conflict DIY mortars and their ammunition are being produced on a very large scale, with this following video giving a good example of a large factory producing both the weapons and ammo

Now one group, the Shahid Ahmed Dirani Artillery Battalion in East Ghouta near Damascus, has taken things further by attaching six DIY mortars to the rear of a truck, creating a mobile mortar battery

The following video shows the mortars being loaded and fired, and we can clearly see the six mortar tubes have been mounted on a rotating platform.

It seems that from the way the rounds are placed in the tubes they are possibly electronically fired, something that doesn't seem 100% reliable as only 5 of the 6 loaded rounds launch. What makes this useful for the opposition is that it allows them to fire a volley of rounds, with the mortar tubes adjusted to hit the same position, then drive away before the position is attacked.